Burns and Blessings

Wednesday, September 7th started out like any other day, but ended quite different from the rest.

I was making scones for the first time and I was pretty excited to use the life-hack my friend told me about, which is to use Rhodes dinner roll dough. 

I heated up a lot of oil in my biggest pan so I could chuck all the dough in at the same time. I waited until it got really hot and then I took the lid off. There was a lot of smoke and I got a little nervous. Then, just like that, the whole pan burst into flame. A big flame that reached halfway up the microwave (3ft! I measured). A plume of smoke rose to the ceiling and almost instantly started the smoke alarm.

My mind raced through different options of what I could do as I looked at Lucy's scared, crying face about 4 feet away from the fire. 

Salt? The fire is too big!

Fire extinguisher? It's in the garage (and I need my key to unlock the garage).

I knew that I had to act fast, so I reached for the pan handle. I needed it out of my house. I quickly moved it onto the cement outside, but as I was setting it down oil spilled all over my foot. 

I screamed in pain and panic.

I ran to the bathtub to run cold water on it. 

Lucy crawled after me crying.

I knew we couldn't stay in the house with all of the smoke (and I needed to get to my phone to call 911). I grabbed Lucy and my phone. 

Right then my neighbors stormed inside. They were in their backyard, heard my scream, saw the smoke, heard the alarm going off and they immediately ran over. They were heaven sent. I would've had to wait for an ambulance and then what would I have done with Lucy when it finally came?

Franz ran out to the backyard where the fire was and started to spray my foot with the hose. His wife, Janet took Lucy, and another angel neighbor ran into the backyard. Franz told Betty that I needed to go the the hospital right away. She ran to get her car while I got a bowl of cold water for my foot, turned the stove off, and got my wallet. 

(Good thing I had just learned about burns a few months before this. No ice! And for deeper burns/open wounds no aloe vera or oils. Just water.)

We raced to the hospital and I kept thinking about the absolute miracle it was that Lucy didn't get hurt. I kept crying tears of joy that she was okay and then I would cry whenever I thought about how scared she was and how she was crying.

But she was okay, our home was protected, our backyard didn't catch on fire, and all that got burned was my foot. Yes, it was painful, but it could have been so much worse. The oil stains on my pants showed that I should have had burns on my thighs too, but my thighs were protected. 

While I was getting the help I needed my amazing neighbors took Lucy into their home and aired out our home by opening all of the windows and bringing their fan over. Another neighbor, Julie, came over to gather a bunch of things that Lucy would need and sent me a picture of Lucy peacefully sleeping. That is exactly what I needed.

After that, 3 more neighbors (Brad, Sherry, and Tatianna) texted me to make sure I was okay and to let me know that they were watching our house and everything was under control.

I am so blessed to have such good neighbors.

"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." D&C 84:88

It wasn't by chance that my neighbors were outside right at that moment. It wasn't by chance that oil didn't spill in my house. It wasn't by chance that Lucy was further away than usual when this happened. It wasn't by chance that my thighs were protected. None of it was chance. God doesn't stop all accidents from happening, but He can help with them.

It seemed like Lucy and I were alone in the house, but I know that wasn't truly the case.

"Though you may feel alone, angels attend you." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

After my neighbor left the hospital, Zach came. I saw him down the hall and I couldn't hold back the tears. I can always count on him to be there for me and it was such a comfort to see him walking towards me. He just hugged me as I cried. Frightened tears, relieved tears, and understanding tears. I was so glad to have him there to be with me.

There were so many wonderful and kind people at the hospital and the burn center. The lady that put lotion on a rag for me so that I didn't have to keep smelling the burnt oil, the man who gave me cold water to pour on my foot, the EMTs who transferred me so carefully from Henry Mayo to the Grossman Burn Center. 

There was one man that made the biggest impact on me and his name is Ibrihim. He is a custodian at the hospital and saw me alone and in pain in the hallway. He went completely out of his way to comfort me. He brought me tissues when he saw me crying, he changed towels under my foot when they would get soaked with water, he brought me a cup that I could use to pour water on my foot, and then after Zach got there he brought me a teddy bear. 

I'm sure he didn't realize how touching that was to me, but it was so comforting to know that someone cared. And when I was getting wheeled away to the ambulance I looked in a room and saw another lady with a teddy bear.

Ibrihim quietly moves about the hospital blessing others and that was a powerful lesson to me.

People are so good.

So, here we are now, a few days later. Family and friends have helped dress my feet twice a day and I've washed my burns twice a day, and yesterday my friend took me to the burn center where they rubbed my burned skin completely off. But my feet are comfortably wrapped and I get to use our office chair as my wheelchair. 

Zach gave me a priesthood blessing at the burn center and in it was said that this accident, despite the pain, has helped me avoid larger, scarier accidents in the future from happening. I'm so grateful for that. I will be SO careful while cooking, Lucy will ALWAYS be far from the kitchen, and now I know what to do in case something like this happens again.

Let me share my newfound knowledge:

I looked up what to do for an oil/grease fire for the future. 

The first thing you should do is to turn off the stove and put a METAL lid over the fire (a glass one will shatter). You can also cover it with another pot or pan.

Baking soda will put out a grease fire, but only if they're small. It takes a lot of baking soda to do the trick. Also, try salt.

DO NOT PUT WATER ON IT!

Also, it'd be smart to move your fire extinguisher to the kitchen since that's the place you'll most likely have a fire. Fire extinguishers contaminate your kitchen but I'd much rather have a contaminated kitchen than NO kitchen at all!

We have received love and support from so many angels in our lives. Family made sure everything was okay, my sister in law: Katie, brother in law: Michael, and their family came to help, afterwards my mother in law stayed with us and helped with everything, friends brought us food and love, and members of our church have reached out and brought us dinners.

We are so blessed. I don't even realize to what extent we're blessed. Only one of my feet is badly injured, my home is still standing, my family is safe, and God continues to perform miracles.

[If you want to see pictures you can scroll down (but let me warn you...it looks like zombie flesh).]

Ibrihim's gift:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3: (I don't have a picture of when they took the skin off....which is probably a good thing.)

My current view:

Update:

Day 6 (after taking off the weekend bandage). Sorry, the nastiness is real. 

Today the doctor said the burn is borderline 3rd degree. I may need surgery when I go in Thursday if it doesn't heal the way it should. It would include digging out the dead skin and adding a skin graft. 

Let's pray I don't need it, but if so at least it'll only be on one foot!


Another update (Sept. 19th):

No surgery!!!! 😄👏🎉🎉🎉
God is a God of miracles and He listens to and answers prayers.
I'm not walking quite yet, but the doctor said that I can start in a couple of days!

From today (look at all of that new skin!):

Zachary Randall

I've been wanting to write about Zach for a while now,

because I think about him all the time and he makes me laugh.

A couple of months ago we needed to pull the car out of the garage for some reason,

so instead of just reversing and parking like a normal person...Zach puts it in neutral (our car is stick shift) and opens the door to tell me to push against it to stop it once it rolls down to its rightful place in the driveway.

I laugh and go along with it and get ready to stop it. 

I was very confident in my car stopping ability, but then it didn't seem to be working. 

So instead of pushing on the brakes, Zach laughs and jumps out of the car to help me.

For a second I thought we would be able to stop it but I guess it picked up too much speed (or our muscles need to grow. Not Zach's. ;) Just mine).

So the car was rolling away from our house, into the road, and towards the sidewalk/our neighbors house.

We were laughing so hard that it was hard for me to yell at Zach to get in the car and slam on the brakes, but I did....thank goodness.

It could have ended in disaster, but we survived, the car didn't crash, and our neighbors got a show. 

We couldn't stop laughing, but through the laughs I told Zach to never do that again.

Another story that needs to be shared is a recurring one.

Zach and I read the scriptures every night and some nights we are both exhausted and kind of zone out (regrettably). 

So, I was having a zoning out night, not listening when I should've been, when I finally realized that Zach was reading about things that didn't make sense AT ALL and didn't sound like scripture. I looked over at him shocked and confused...and he busted up laughing and said that he had been saying gibberish for quite some time.

So yes, this has happened more than once now.

I tried doing it to him, but he caught it right away. Dang. Maybe next time.

Well, that's a little piece of my Zachary Randall.

I love that he makes me laugh.

Not Strangers

About a month ago on one of my weekly trips to the grocery store I walked down an aisle towards a lady. I wanted to smile at this lady so I looked at her, waiting for her to look back. She seemed to be making a conscious effort to keep her eyes glued to the ever-so-interesting floor. 

'Why isn't this lady looking at me?', I thought. 'It's not that hard to smile at someone.'

I continued shopping and forgot about the "no eye contact encounter" until I realized that sometimes I would do the same thing as that lady. Why didn't I feel up to making eye contact with some of my very own fellow shoppers. If it's not that hard to smile at someone why do I not do it more?!

Which brought me to this thought:

Everyone in our lives is put in our lives for a reason. It's our responsibility and privilege to brighten the days and lives of those people.

Love God and love they neighbor.

Those are the first two commandments. 

Cheryl C. Lant said, "We are all our neighbor. Our family is our neighbor. Our roommates are our neighbors. Our friends, our enemies, our acquaintances, and those we have never met—all of these are our neighbors."

So why not give a smile or simply say hello to those people you pass in the grocery store? Seems harmless. Easy enough right? Nobody even likes grocery shopping so why not bring some happiness or laughter to those not so happy moments?

After thinking all of this through I was determined to smile and say hello to EVERYONE in the grocery store (within reason- nobody wants a lunatic yelling hello across the whole store, but who knows...that might be very refreshing).

So I started putting myself to the test. I would smile, say hello, sometimes engage in conversation or joke around, but then sometimes I would completely fail! 

I don't know why there would be people that I would pass by. I suppose I'm not entirely used to it, but I'm getting better. I'm getting better at not pretending to be so interested in what's on my shopping list that I can't even acknowledge the people I'm standing RIGHT NEXT TO.

I'm not perfect, but I'm trying, and because of it I've laughed with a neighbor, tried to help a neighbor figure something out about coffee even after I told her I have no idea because I don't even drink coffee, I've connected with neighbors, I've let neighbors help me, and there has been a whole lot of smiling and friendly hellos.

I'm not sure how far this change will go, but at least I'll try to help people feel a little happier as they go about their day.

Matthew 25:40: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Mosiah 2:17: “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

I'm sure if we saw Jesus in the grocery store, we'd say hi. Well, He is at the grocery store, and at the gas station, and at the park, and walking the streets. It's Him. 

Because when we do anything to someone else. Whether it be good or bad. He feels it.

So let's do some good.

Grocery Store conversation starters:

"Hello!"

"Hi there."

"I hope you're having a wonderful day."

"I just wanted to tell you that you look beautiful today."

"I'll help you look for your groceries if you help me look for mine." (Zach's idea)

"Donuts are very necessary."

"Excuse me, can I please have some help finding _____?"

"Having a hard time?"

"You already found that? Do you remember where you got it?"

"Those kids are going fishing."

"My daughter keeps smiling at you."

"(Insert your good ideas here.)"

Hawaii

Watching this video made me cry happy tears. 

I love my family and I love the memories that we make together. 

So here's to Hawaii. Cheers.

When Lucy Was a Poppyseed

Making this video so fun! It involved a lot of direction and shirt switching.

Thanks to Katie and Lily we were able to pull it off (literally).

This is how we announced that we were having a baby girl.

Valentine's Video for Daddy

Lucy is 5 months old tomorrow (March 6)! She is growing faster than I want her to.

I compiled a bunch of videos of her to make this video for Zach for his first Valentine's Day as a dad.

(I didn't put any music to it because I love hearing her little baby sounds.)

It brings tears to our eyes already.

We love our little Lucy girl!

Valley of Death

Last weekend Zach, Lucy, and I jumped in the car and drove 4 hours north.

We met up with Zach's parents and the Floyd's for a camping trip in Death Valley.

Woohoo! Camping!

We love spending time with family so camping with them was a real treat.

I've driven through Death Valley but never have I stopped to see all of the beauty that it holds.

Who knew there were so many amazing sites to see in the middle of no where?!

I sure didn't know!

The whole gang

I've always loved camping. 

Whether it be with family, friends, at girls camp, on trek, at ward camp outs, etc.

I love the outdoors. 

Singing and talking around the campfire is euphoric.

Looking up at the night sky drenched in thick amounts of stars that you can only see when you're out in the middle of nowhere is one of my absolute favorite things.

And I can't forget going to sleep to the sound of crickets and coyotes.

Lucy looks appalled

We admired the desert in full bloom. It was gorgeous and it looked like a sea of gold.

Zach took this amazing photo right when the sun was setting (and all of the other flower pictures).

twin flowers

I look so cool when I run, haha

Katie and 5 of the 6 (you can barely see Mallory)

We hiked a canyon with a sweeto natural arch and carried Lucy because we thought the Ergo would be just too dang hot. It was quite the exercise.

This pregnant woman wanted to keep going and going!

I love them.

Checking out where the waterfall cut through the rock.

Lily is so brave and didn't even need my help, but it made me feel better standing under her so she wouldn't fall to her death.

Thanks for letting Lucy borrow your hat, Mallory! Haha

We also got to see the golf course that the devil made. He did a pretty awful job.

Good job again with the pictures, Zach. Jolly good.

Salty, yet satisfying.

Those eyes get me every time.

Death Valley is nothing new for the Howe family. They went every year growing up and the highlight was the sand dunes (at least for Zach it was). Zach always told me how they would climb to the highest dune and throw themselves off and roll down the sand to their heart's content. They would also use sides of barrels to sled down the dunes.

The dunes were HOT but the sledding was oh so fun.

Grandpa Howe to the rescue! (Katie captured the moment)

Such a cute picture. Nicely done, Katie.

We didn't quite make it to the tallest dune, but we found a good one for sledding. Zach, on the other hand, was determined to make it to the top. He asked Kaylee if she wanted to go with him and she agreed because she "Is not a quitter".

After successfully reaching the top, Kaylee zoomed down the dune with lightning speed! 

The adrenaline rush and all that walking made Kaylee pretty exhausted.

Zach walked the whole way from the tallest dune to the car with Kaylee asleep on his back and the sled tied to his belt, dangling behind him

There they are in the distance before making their journey (a little dark but that's okay. I'm learning the photography way of life).

A tired girl and an amazing uncle.

The last thing that I want to share that we did is Artist's Drive. We drove it twice. Once under the stars with the windows down, listening to the sounds of the outdoors at night (which was magical). We drove it again the next day and we are SO GLAD WE DID! The scenery is fantastic and the mountains are purple, bluish green, and all sorts of other colors! 

SO pretty.

Probably my favorite place that we visited and no pictures can even do it justice.

Well, there you have it. Death Valley in a nutshell.

Thanks for the fun weekend and lifelong memories, Death Valley. We'll see you again soon!

There's a first for everything.

Usually baby's firsts are exciting and fun.

This one was horrifying and...not fun.

We don't know if she was feeling sick before or if it was motion sickness or dehydration or a mixture of them all,

but our poor Lucy got sick for the first time...her first time at Disneyland.

Yes, she's so young and yes, she won't remember this Disneyland experience, 

but my sister, her two kids, and my mom were in town so why WOULDN'T we go to the happiest place on earth?? (Plus, we were so excited to see her so happy on the rides, of course).

So we went. 

With a 3 year old, 4 1/2 month old, and a 1 1/2 month old. 

It was an adventure and worth it.

But let me tell you....it is the saddest thing to see a baby throw up.

Especially when it's your baby.

It started on the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel. 

I've never been on it and it was going to be a peaceful ride to take babies and a child.

Well, yes it would have been peaceful enough....if we didn't take the swinging gondola.

Why did we take the swinging gondola?!?

From a distance, the swinging gondolas do not look scary or like they will have too much force for such tiny humans.

We boarded the ride and they closed us in...

As we began our journey around and around, Mckay held onto Mindy and yelled "This is not fun! This is not fun!"

As we were laughing and trying to convince him that it was actually fun, Lucy projectile vomited all over Zach. Twice.

Who knew that she even had that much fluid in her?

That ride seemed like it would never stop! When it finally did Lucy fell right asleep. Fewf.

After she woke up, I fed her and she threw up again.

Through all of this, by the way, she didn't cry at all and she kept smiling at us. 

She is seriously such a happy girl.

We weren't sure what to do and then she started heaving, her face went red and she starting throwing up small amounts of yellow (gross that I'm so descriptive, but it just explains why we were so scared and sad and felt so helpless).

Zach called our pediatrician while I was watching her closely.

Mindy taught me what to do if she was choking, because it looked and sounded like she was.

There's good news though. She got better. 

After the crazy day at Disneyland and a sleepless night for both mommy and daddy (because we took turns sitting up with her so if she threw up she wouldn't choke) she got some electrolytes in her tiny body and she perked up.

l

This strong girl gave us a scare, but everyone seemed to know she'd be okay.

That day I learned some things.

Not all firsts are good, but they are a part of this life.

I would do anything to make my daughter's pain/discomfort go away, Which made me appreciate even more that Heavenly Father sacrificed His only Son to die for everyone who has and will live on this Earth. I can't imagine how difficult it was for Him to see His Son suffer and die.

This experience also reaffirmed to me that God listens to and answers our prayers.

Steep Stone Staircases

About a month ago Zach, Lucy, and I went with our friends Rachel and Brandon to climb up and down the old historic steep stone staircases that are hidden in the the Hollywoodland hills.

Almost 100 years ago these stairs were built when most people didn't own or drive cars. The people would get to other homes and the city by walking these staircases. 

If you didn't know about the staircases you probably wouldn't take them because you'd just think they lead to someone's house.

Well, we walked up and over and up and over and down and up and across and up some more. ALL throughout this cute, unique city. Some houses small and quaint while others were literally castles. 

It was fun to get out and see the city from a different point of view.